ESG (Environmental, Social, & Governance) cock-ups

[k1976]

SP Group to cut cooling system usage rate, waives fees till year-end after Tengah homeowners' complaints​

SP Group, CNA
The centralised cooling system in a four-room flat in Tengah (left), and the system's pipes running into a unit from the front door (right).
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BY

KOH WAN TING​

LOUISA TANG​

November 7, 2023

SINGAPORE — National grid operator SP Group said on Monday (Nov 6) that it will waive all centralised cooling system usage charges for Tengah homeowners till the end of this year and lower the usage rate from Jan 1, following a slew of complaints from residents.
In a “further gesture of goodwill”, homeowners who choose to cancel the installation of the system will only have to fork out half of the payment originally required, added SP Group.
In recent weeks, residents have written to the authorities and started an online petition about their concerns with the cost and management of the system, among other concerns.
A group of more than 100 residents sent a letter dated Oct 27 to the Prime Minister’s Office, expressing their "anxiety and disappointment over the issues" with the system. They detailed five key concerns: excessive charges, misleading advertisement and information, a lack of transparency, cancellation policy issues, and poor communication.
One of the main concerns included how the supposed cost savings from opting for the cooling system instead of conventional air conditioning appeared to be lower than what they were told.

They also pointed out that the current chilled water usage rate of S$0.2038 per kilowatt-hour refrigeration (kWrh) for October to November had increased compared to previous quarters. SP Group sets the chilled water usage rate of the cooling system, which is updated quarterly.
The residents asked for usage rates to be adjusted, or for fees to be completely waived for those looking to terminate their centralised cooling system contract.
Issues with the centralised cooling system, a sustainable alternative to air conditioning pioneered in the new Tengah housing estate, have cropped up since before residents began collecting their keys in end-August.
As of Nov 6, about 1,109 units out of 2,333 units in the first two Tengah projects — Plantation Acres and Plantation Grange — have collected their keys, said the Housing and Development Board (HDB) in response to CNA’s queries.
CNA earlier reported that homeowners found the trunking of the cooling system too bulky or unsightly. Others who began using the system found condensation or leakages, or that temperatures were not cold enough.
Unlike conventional air conditioning which uses refrigerants, the cooling system removes heat by piping chilled water into homes from centralised chillers on selected housing blocks. These pipes run through corridors and into each unit via the front door.

SP Group manages the sign-ups, installation and maintenance of the system and works with air-con manufacturer Daikin, which is responsible for installing indoor units, diagnosing and resolving reported issues.
While already adopted commercially, the cooling system is new to public housing and optional for homeowners. Residents can still choose to install conventional air-conditioning.
The option for centralised cooling is presented to new homeowners after they apply for their build-to-order flats. Homeowners will be given a tour of the MyTengah experience centre at HDB Hub, where they will be briefed on how the cooling system works and its benefits.
Upon signing a contract, homeowners would be given a 30-day cooling-off period, after which cancelling the contract would result in a 35 per cent penalty.

USAGE CHARGES​

On Monday, SP Group said it understands the concept of a centralised cooling system for residential homes is new, and “some time may be needed” for the earlier batches of homeowners to get used to it.
“Hence, as an additional goodwill gesture, SP will waive all centralised cooling system usage charges for Tengah customers during this interim period from now to Dec 31, 2023,” it said.

As for monthly usage charges, residents had pointed to various sources which advertised 30 per cent cost savings from using the cooling system compared to conventional air conditioning. These include the MyTengah website, which stated "30 per cent life cycle savings compared to conventional air-conditioning systems".
However the amount was recently amended to "17 per cent life cycle cost savings", upsetting residents.
Some took to a Telegram chat group to share cost estimates of their cooling system based on current usage rates, comparing them to data provided by brands of conventional air-conditioning systems.
They also noted that they have not been able to compare the full, sustained cost of using the centralised cooling system as SP Group had waived the chilled water charges from Oct 9 to Oct 31 during their checks.
Ms Chan Sze, who in her 30s and has a two-room flat in Plantation Grange, said that based on her meter readings so far, the cost of running the cooling system seemed "quite high".
"It ranges from about 2 kWrh to 4 kWrh per hour for my two-room flat (with one indoor unit), which is about S$0.45 to S$0.87 per hour. This is about the same as conventional (air conditioning) on the low end and almost twice as expensive on the high end."
Pointing out that cost savings had been marketed as 30 per cent, Ms Chan, who does administrative work, said: "It just feels (like) there is a mismatch of what we were sold and what (is) now received."
In their letter to the Prime Minister, residents further noted that the current quarter’s usage rate — S$0.2038 per kWrh — was nearly three times more the expected rate originally indicated by SP Group, despite only a 48 per cent increase in electricity costs since then.
In response, SP Group laid out the reasons behind the increase.
It also announced it would not charge homeowners for using the centralised cooling system till Dec 31, and will adjust the usage rate to S$0.132 per kWrh (before Goods and Services Tax) from Jan 1 next year.
It noted that residents’ claims of the original expected usage rate being S$0.072, as indicated by SP Group, “appears to be derived from an assumed cooling energy consumption of 10,200 kWrh”.
The usage rate charge is reviewed and adjusted quarterly, similar to electricity and gas tariffs. It was estimated at S$0.09 per kWrh in 2020 based on the electricity tariff, planned project costs and cooling energy consumption, said SP Group.
However, electricity cost has risen almost 50 per cent from S$0.196 per kWh in 2020 to S$0.287 per kWh now. Project costs have also increased 20 per cent due to the pandemic.
Taking these factors into account, along with an estimated lower cooling energy consumption, the expected centralised cooling system usage charge rate was increased to S$0.2038 per kWrh on Oct 1.
SP Group acknowledged that this increase from S$0.09 per kWrh “will have some impact" on the initial estimate of up to 30 per cent savings.
Tengah homeowners have not been billed on this rate yet as SP Group is performing an additional quality assurance service check on all flats, even though the rate has been published online.
With some initial usage data from Tengah households, SP Group added that it has “updated our assumptions and completed a review of the usage charge rate”.
The quality assurance process is ongoing for 330 households, with 43 per cent having completed the process so far.

CONTRACTUAL AGREEMENTS​

In terms of cancellation fees, some residents said they were only recently told to pay 135 per cent the cost of their contract for the centralised cooling system if they pulled out.
One of these residents, Ms Geraldine Ong, is due to collect her keys to her flat at Plantation Acres at the end of this month.
The accountant – also part of the group of residents who signed the letter – had wanted to cancel the cooling system as she was worried about leaking, the usage cost and SP Group's unresponsiveness to her queries.
The 38-year-old said she was asked to pay 135 per cent of the cost of her cooling system when she spoke to an SP staff member on Oct 24.
The cost of her five indoor units is S$4,500 excluding the Goods and Services Tax. This means that she may have to fork out S$6,075 if she terminates, an amount Ms Ong described as "crazy".
She expressed disappointment that SP Group had not pointed out the relevant clauses in the contract when she signed the agreement.
IT professionals Mr Sun, 33, and Mrs Sun, 30, told CNA about their worries of incurring a hefty loss if they cancelled their contract.
The system has already been installed in their five-room flat at Plantation Village; they are due to collect their keys in the first quarter of next year.
Their five indoor units costs S$4,917, including the additional cost of shifting a unit.
The couple had found that the cooling system's trunking ran into the toilet, affecting their renovation plans there. They were not made aware of this design when they signed up.
They also cited SP Group’s unresponsiveness to their queries as a factor in deciding to cancel their contract.
On Monday, SP Group said SP Group collects 35 per cent of the installation charge from customers who choose not to proceed with the system after a 30-day cooling off period when they sign an installation agreement. This is due to costs and resources incurred to secure supply and contracts for the installation.
Customers also have to pay the full installation charge if they choose not to proceed after the fan coil units, piping and cabling have been installed.
However, SP Group said it will now reduce the payment to be collected by 50 per cent in the event of cancellation as a “further gesture of goodwill”.
This was after taking into account feedback from the early batch of homeowners and the initial issues that cropped up.

DEFECTS RECTIFIED​

In terms of defects, SP Group said that as of Oct 27, 88 per cent – or 470 out of a total of 536 reported defects – have been resolved.
The group is working to rectify the remaining 66 reported defects as soon as possible, and is in close contact with these residents who come from 48 households, it added.
SP Group said that residents who were among the first to collect their keys had reported workmanship issues with the fan coil units in their centralised cooling system.
This "largely stemmed from construction constraints caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to HDB’s accelerated construction timeline to hand over the blocks to residents”, added SP Group.
Because of this, the group did not have enough time to perform checks and ensure the smooth running of the system, before residents of the earlier batches of flats collected their keys.
“SP is committed to rectifying the issues, and we have in place a systematic and convenient issues reporting and rectification process for residents. Issues reported are typically attended to by the next business day, and we aim to resolve these issues within 10 business days,” it said.
Moving forward, SP Group said it has seen a reduction in the feedback rate on the centralised cooling system for flats handed over in October, compared to blocks handed over in the previous two months.
It added that it worked closely with HDB to allow its installation teams to conduct checks before owners collected their keys.

LIFE CYCLE COSTS​

SP Group also noted that after the usage rate is adjusted from Jan 1, customers can benefit from life cycle savings of up to 30 per cent in comparison to conventional split unit air-conditioning over a 20-year period.
However, because some residents may not stay in their homes for 20 years, SP Group said it worked out the estimated life cycle costs over a shorter period of seven years – the life span of a condenser unit of a conventional air-conditioning system.
SP Group cautioned that “meaningful cost comparisons" must be done on a “like-for-like basis”, owing to the differences between the centralised cooling system and a conventional air-conditioning system.
Life cycle costs of the centralised cooling system are calculated based on the costs for hardware, equipment replacement and maintenance, and monthly system usage over 20 years.

SP GROUP’S ENGAGEMENT WITH RESIDENTS​

SP Group also said it has engaged with residents from more than 2,000 households through various platforms in the last 12 months.
“Besides the Tengah website and app, we have held 18 events for residents to provide updates on their upcoming centralised cooling system activation and address their queries in person,” it added.
Meanwhile, HDB said it will continue to “monitor feedback” and support SP Group to ensure the roll-out of the centralised cooling system in Tengah “proceeds as smoothly as possible”.
SP Group said in its statement: “We apologise that our service delivery and communications with customers have fallen short of expectations.
“We will endeavour to improve our customers’ experience with the centralised cooling system. We thank our customers for their support, patience and understanding.” CNA

This is call give a wing and take back whole cheekon.....no ns no privileges to know first hand

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

No one wants used EVs, making new ones a tougher sell too​

Buyers are shunning EVs due to a lack of subsidies, a desire to wait for better technology, and continued shortfalls in charging infrastructures. PHOTO: AFP

DEC 26, 2023

BERLIN – The shift away from cars with dirty combustion engines is running into a new hurdle: Drivers do not want to buy used electric vehicles (EVs), and that is undermining the market for new ones too.
In the US$1.2 trillion (S$1.6 trillion) second-hand market, prices for battery-powered cars are falling faster than for their combustion-engine cousins.
Buyers are shunning them due to a lack of subsidies, a desire to wait for better technology, and continued shortfalls in charging infrastructures.
A fierce price war sparked by Tesla and competitive Chinese models are further depressing values of new and used cars alike, threatening earnings at rivals like Volkswagen (VW) and Stellantis.
As most new vehicles in Europe are sold via leases, automakers and dealers which finance these transactions are trying to recover losses from plummeting valuations by raising borrowing costs. That is hitting demand in some European markets that were in the vanguard of the shift away from fossil fuel-powered propulsion.
Some of the biggest buyers of new cars, including rental firms, are cutting back on EV adoption because they are losing money on resales, with Sixt dropping Tesla models from its fleet.
“When a car loses 1 per cent of its worth, I make 1 per cent less profit,” said Mr Christian Dahlheim, who heads VW’s financial services arm. The issues with second-hand EVs, he added, have the potential to destroy billions of euros in earnings for the broader industry.

The problems are expected to intensify in 2024, when many of the 1.2 million EVs sold in Europe in 2021 will come off their three-year leasing contracts and enter the second-hand market.
How companies tackle this problem will be key for their bottom lines, consumer confidence and ultimately decarbonisation – including the European Union’s plan to phase out sales of new fuel-burning cars by 2035.
“There isn’t used-car demand for EVs,” said Mr Matt Harrison, Toyota Motor’s chief operating officer in Europe. “That’s really hurting the cost-of-ownership story.”

Companies can funnel battery-powered cars into mobility offerings and ride-sharing start-ups, but there is limited demand from these businesses.
Unwanted combustion cars often end up in Africa, where their poor state causes pollution issues. That market is largely shut to EVs because it has no viable infrastructure to charge them.
China offers a cautionary tale. Lucrative subsidies turned the country into an EV giant, but also produced weed-infested graveyards of abandoned battery-powered vehicles.
Any similar eyesores in Europe or the United States may strengthen calls from conservative politicians to roll back aid for the industry, with key elections coming up in the US and Europe in 2024.
Warning signs around EVs appeared early in 2023 when Tesla started aggressively cutting prices in an effort to prop up sales. That sparked a price war as other manufacturers followed, eating into profitability for some and pushing up already steep losses for others.
Prices for second-hand EVs slumped by around a third in the year through October, compared with a decline of just 5 per cent in the overall used market, according to sales data from iSeeCars.com, a website that ranks cars and dealers. Used EVs take longer to sell than petrol models even after significant price cuts, the group said.
In Germany, Europe’s biggest auto market, most new vehicles are first sold as company or fleet cars and then re-enter the private second-hand market one to three years later.
But with orders even for new EVs slowing, more and more used models are sitting in parking spaces longer than 90 days, meaning they have become “risk inventory”, according to the Deutsche Automobil Treuhand market researcher.
“One has to slash prices significantly just to get customers to look at EVs,” said Mr Dirk Weddigen von Knapp, who heads a group representing VW and Audi dealers.
Part of the problem is that the industry is handling second-hand EVs for the first time. While combustion-engine cars can be quickly valued via their age and mileage, there are no tests in widespread use that determine the quality of a battery, added Mr Weddigen von Knapp. The battery represents around 30 per cent of an EV’s value, a share that is expected to decline in the coming years, according to BloombergNEF.
To be sure, some EVs are performing well years after their introduction, with less-than-expected battery degradation, said Mr Mike Tyndall, an analyst at HSBC.
Tesla cars can sell quickly in the second-hand market because of the brand’s reputation as a technology leader and its regular wireless software updates. The quirky i3 electric car BMW introduced a decade ago has even developed a cult following.

Still, most consumers remain reticent about buying used EVs. Manufacturers are already working on new battery technologies, including solid-state, that promise cheaper cars with longer ranges and faster charging. The likes of Mercedes-Benz and BMW have announced plans to introduce several next-generation EVs around mid-decade. Volkswagen, Stellantis and Renault are developing models costing €25,000 (S$36,500) or less.
Ayvens, a fleet management company handling about 3.5 million vehicles, said the uncertainty around EV technology will convince more customers to lease rather than buy – accelerating a shift away from owning a car to driving it for a fee. BLOOMBERG

 

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Some Tengah residents upset centralised cooling system not yet installed after getting keys to units​

SP said an additional four weeks are needed for installation after key collection. ST PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN

Isabelle Liew

DEC 31, 2023

SINGAPORE – Tengah resident Julie Tan had to delay renovating her new flat for more than half a month, as the centralised cooling system was not yet installed when she collected the keys to her five-room unit in November.
Ms Tan, 49, said she was shocked when SP Group, which manages the cooling system in Tengah town, told her that it was unable to complete the installation of the system in time.
She had approached the utilities firm at its customer service centre at HDB Hub in Toa Payoh on Nov 27, after collecting her keys that day, as she was wondering why she was not yet asked to pay for the installation.
“They said the installation would take another two to four weeks. We were hoping to move in before Chinese New Year, but it has to be delayed as we can start renovation only after it is installed,” the accounts executive told The Straits Times on Dec 13.
ST knows of at least seven Tengah households in one block in the Plantation Acres project that are affected.
In response to queries, SP and the Housing Board confirmed that the installation was incomplete for “a handful” of units, without specifying how many units or blocks were affected.
An SP spokesman said HDB had an accelerated construction schedule to hand over units to residents following delays due to Covid-19. As a result, the company’s installation partner, Daikin, was unable to complete the installation of the fan coil units (FCUs) before the key collection date.

Plantation Acres, launched in May 2019, was initially slated for completion in the second half of 2022.
Asked why keys were given out before the installation was complete, an HDB spokeswoman said that although SP needed more time, HDB prioritised handing over keys to home owners by the committed completion date to allow them to move in as soon as possible. Therefore, it was unable to accommodate SP’s schedule, she added.
SP said an additional four weeks are needed for installation after key collection, for Daikin to install the units and work with SP to carry out testing and commissioning works to ensure the system performs according to operating standards. Usage charges will be waived during this time.

The SP spokesman added that affected customers were informed before their key collection.
“We understand this may impact customers’ plans, and are working with Daikin to have the FCUs installed for these customers as soon as possible,” he said.
Although the installation of the cooling system in Ms Tan’s home was completed about three weeks after she collected her keys, she has yet to receive the remote controls for it, she told ST on Dec 29.
Ms Tan said she was initially worried about the delay as she has to vacate her current home by March 8, having sold her flat earlier in December with three months’ extension of stay. But she added that she is less anxious as renovation began last week.
“We should be able to move in after Chinese New Year. I just hope that the cooling system works well, because for now, we can turn it on only manually,” she said.

Another resident, who wanted to be known only as Mr Chiam, 34, said he was surprised when he received an e-mail from SP informing him about the installation delay only after he had collected the keys to his five-room flat on Nov 28.
“I was already at SP’s Tengah experience centre at HDB Hub, trying to make payment for my centralised cooling system’s units,” he added.
Mr Chiam, who works in the public sector, said he decided to cancel his contract, and SP sent him an invoice for a cancellation fee of about $800.
“Despite the controversy about quality, I was still willing to go ahead with the system. Since SP isn’t able to meet the handover deadline, why should we take the risk to wait?
“It’s disappointing that I’m still being charged the cancellation fee when it’s not my fault it wasn’t installed.”
Mr Chiam said he has e-mailed SP to ask if the fee can be waived, but has not received a reply.

Tengah, an eco-friendly and car-lite “forest” town, is the first HDB estate to provide a centralised cooling system as an option for home owners.
The system uses chilled water to remove heat, unlike conventional air-conditioning units that are connected to outdoor compressors and use refrigerants to cool down flats. Centralised chillers on the blocks’ rooftops produce chilled water that is piped directly into homes.
ST reported in October that the cooling system had run into teething problems after the first batch of residents collected their keys at the end of August, with some saying the system in their units was not cold enough.
In November, a petition signed by more than 150 Tengah residents highlighted that the chilled water usage rate of 20.38 cents per kilowatt-hour refrigeration (kWrh) for the period of October to December was higher than expected and requested that it be lowered. SP subsequently waived charges until Dec 31 and adjusted the rate to 13.2 cents per kWrh from Jan 1. The rate will be reviewed and adjusted quarterly.
According to an archived webpage on Nov 15 of the myTengah website, run by SP, eight in 10 – or more than 10,600 – residents of Tengah have opted for the system. A check on Dec 29 showed that this number had been removed. SP did not provide cancellation numbers when asked by ST.
Residents had also complained about the inaccessibility of public transport in the new town, and an additional bus service to Jurong Town Hall Bus Interchange was added in November. There are now three bus services serving Tengah.
The keys for 2,093 units – about 56 per cent of the 3,753 units in the first three Build-To-Order projects in Tengah – were collected by Dec 17, HDB said. They are Plantation Acres, Plantation Grange and Plantation Village.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Do 70,000 people really need to be at a climate confab?​

The expanding crowd risks overshadowing the purpose and turning the meeting into another celebrity-studded gathering of rich people.​

Mark Gongloff

COP28 president Sultan Al Jaber speaking at the opening ceremony of the climate summit in Dubai on Nov 30. PHOTO: AFP

DEC 1, 2023

How many people do you think it takes to hammer out a global climate agreement? 500? 5,000? 50,000? Apparently, the correct answer is 70,000.
That’s about how many people are expected to turn up in Dubai over the next few weeks for COP28, the latest United Nations climate confab, which started on Nov 30. This is up from 49,704 at COP27 in 2022 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, and 38,457 at COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland. Attendance has more than tripled since 2019. In COP’s early years, attendance averaged just 5,000.
Whether this explosion is a sign that the world is taking climate change more seriously, or just the bloat that naturally accumulates around gatherings of humans who control large pools of political and financial capital remains to be seen. Is COP Man devolving into Davos Man? The answer depends partly – but not entirely – on how much real progress gets made over the next few weeks.
On that front, it’s difficult to be optimistic. Many of those 70,000 people will spend days continuing a years-long argument over whether the world should phase fossil fuels “out” or “down” or whether those fuels should instead be “abated” (iffy so far) by carbon-capture technology. Meanwhile, big oil producers are still moving full steam ahead on phasing those fuels up, rapidly shrinking the window of opportunity to limit global heating to just 1.5 deg C above pre-industrial averages.
“If the ‘success’ of COP was directly proportional to the number of delegates in attendance, COP28 would be a sure-fire triumph,” Mr David Oxley, head of climate economics at Capital Economics, wrote in a note. “However, at best, we suspect that the law of diminishing marginal returns holds true.”
If one wanted to be nitpicky about it, one could argue that 70,000 people riding airplanes to an oil country on the Arabian Peninsula to talk about climate change feels a bit like staging an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in a Fort Lauderdale nightclub during spring break. You risk losing sight of the purpose.
To be fair, if those 70,000 people all fly commercial, then their climate impact might not be too ludicrous. A first class round trip from New York’s JFK airport to Dubai produces roughly three tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per passenger, according to a United Nations calculator. That’s less than a quarter of the carbon pollution the average American produces in a year. Flying economy cuts that impact in half again.

By comparison, Taylor Swift’s private jet flights produced nearly 8,300 tonnes of CO2 in 2022, by one estimate. Then again, 70,000 people producing 210,000 tonnes of CO2 for one Dubai shindig is the equivalent of more than 25 Taylor Swift years.
And untold scores of those COP attendees will not be flying commercial. They will be taking private jets, which generate 100 times more carbon pollution per passenger than commercial ones. At least 100 private aircraft flew to Sharm el-Sheikh in 2022, and 118 flew to Glasgow in 2021. In 2023, King Charles III, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and British Foreign Secretary David Cameron will each take their own private jet from the United Kingdom to Dubai. Jet-pooling is a thing, you guys. Just ask Taylor.
The standard defence to such excess is that to get very important people to very important talks, you may have to accept a risk that less important people will suffer a bit more sea-level rise, drought or wildfire in the future. And, as climate talks have become more complicated, they have naturally required more bodies to work on them.
COP in 2023 will not just be haggling over words like “down” and “out”. It will also involve detailed negotiations over climate finance and a “stock take” accounting of exactly how far the world has come in fighting climate change (spoiler alert: not very). It might also involve fossil-fuel companies pledging to end methane emissions by 2030, which would actually be a huge development.
Still, if these meetings are to be constructive in the future, then they will need to consider bloat. In a 2021 study, the European Capacity Building Initiative (ECBI), a group focused on making climate talks less terrible, suggested COPs of 20,000 attendees were already too distended. It argued for pruning COPs back to 5,000 people doing the boring technical work of putting treaties into action.
Other business could be spread across smaller confabs throughout the year, the ECBI suggested, including a “Global Climate Action Week” that will fulfil humanity’s need for dog-and-pony shows attracting the world leaders, celebrities and grifters currently turning COP into Green Davos. That still sounds like a lot of flying, unfortunately. But maybe it will be more productive, too. BLOOMBERG

 

[k1976]

Do 70,000 people really need to be at a climate confab?​

The expanding crowd risks overshadowing the purpose and turning the meeting into another celebrity-studded gathering of rich people.​

Mark Gongloff

COP28 president Sultan Al Jaber speaking at the opening ceremony of the climate summit in Dubai on Nov 30. PHOTO: AFP

DEC 1, 2023

How many people do you think it takes to hammer out a global climate agreement? 500? 5,000? 50,000? Apparently, the correct answer is 70,000.
That’s about how many people are expected to turn up in Dubai over the next few weeks for COP28, the latest United Nations climate confab, which started on Nov 30. This is up from 49,704 at COP27 in 2022 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, and 38,457 at COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland. Attendance has more than tripled since 2019. In COP’s early years, attendance averaged just 5,000.
Whether this explosion is a sign that the world is taking climate change more seriously, or just the bloat that naturally accumulates around gatherings of humans who control large pools of political and financial capital remains to be seen. Is COP Man devolving into Davos Man? The answer depends partly – but not entirely – on how much real progress gets made over the next few weeks.
On that front, it’s difficult to be optimistic. Many of those 70,000 people will spend days continuing a years-long argument over whether the world should phase fossil fuels “out” or “down” or whether those fuels should instead be “abated” (iffy so far) by carbon-capture technology. Meanwhile, big oil producers are still moving full steam ahead on phasing those fuels up, rapidly shrinking the window of opportunity to limit global heating to just 1.5 deg C above pre-industrial averages.
“If the ‘success’ of COP was directly proportional to the number of delegates in attendance, COP28 would be a sure-fire triumph,” Mr David Oxley, head of climate economics at Capital Economics, wrote in a note. “However, at best, we suspect that the law of diminishing marginal returns holds true.”
If one wanted to be nitpicky about it, one could argue that 70,000 people riding airplanes to an oil country on the Arabian Peninsula to talk about climate change feels a bit like staging an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in a Fort Lauderdale nightclub during spring break. You risk losing sight of the purpose.
To be fair, if those 70,000 people all fly commercial, then their climate impact might not be too ludicrous. A first class round trip from New York’s JFK airport to Dubai produces roughly three tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per passenger, according to a United Nations calculator. That’s less than a quarter of the carbon pollution the average American produces in a year. Flying economy cuts that impact in half again.

By comparison, Taylor Swift’s private jet flights produced nearly 8,300 tonnes of CO2 in 2022, by one estimate. Then again, 70,000 people producing 210,000 tonnes of CO2 for one Dubai shindig is the equivalent of more than 25 Taylor Swift years.
And untold scores of those COP attendees will not be flying commercial. They will be taking private jets, which generate 100 times more carbon pollution per passenger than commercial ones. At least 100 private aircraft flew to Sharm el-Sheikh in 2022, and 118 flew to Glasgow in 2021. In 2023, King Charles III, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and British Foreign Secretary David Cameron will each take their own private jet from the United Kingdom to Dubai. Jet-pooling is a thing, you guys. Just ask Taylor.
The standard defence to such excess is that to get very important people to very important talks, you may have to accept a risk that less important people will suffer a bit more sea-level rise, drought or wildfire in the future. And, as climate talks have become more complicated, they have naturally required more bodies to work on them.
COP in 2023 will not just be haggling over words like “down” and “out”. It will also involve detailed negotiations over climate finance and a “stock take” accounting of exactly how far the world has come in fighting climate change (spoiler alert: not very). It might also involve fossil-fuel companies pledging to end methane emissions by 2030, which would actually be a huge development.
Still, if these meetings are to be constructive in the future, then they will need to consider bloat. In a 2021 study, the European Capacity Building Initiative (ECBI), a group focused on making climate talks less terrible, suggested COPs of 20,000 attendees were already too distended. It argued for pruning COPs back to 5,000 people doing the boring technical work of putting treaties into action.
Other business could be spread across smaller confabs throughout the year, the ECBI suggested, including a “Global Climate Action Week” that will fulfil humanity’s need for dog-and-pony shows attracting the world leaders, celebrities and grifters currently turning COP into Green Davos. That still sounds like a lot of flying, unfortunately. But maybe it will be more productive, too. BLOOMBERG

They want to know secret of huat big big mah

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Forum: Self-checkout comes with its own host of problems​

JAN 22, 2024

While I agree with Mr Jeffrey Law (Don’t ask supermarket staff to do everything at self-checkout counters, Jan 19), the question is whether supermarket self-checkout is as efficient as it is made out to be.
Often, you still have to wait in line. The checkout kiosks bleat and flash when you fail to set a purchase down in the right spot. Scanning items can be hit-or-miss – wave a barcode too vigorously in front of an unresponsive machine, and suddenly you’ve scanned it two or three times.
Then you need to locate the usually lone employee charged with supervising all the finicky kiosks, who will show her exasperation while scanning her ID badge and tapping the kiosk’s touch screen from pure muscle memory.
There is little evidence that self-checkout is reliably faster than the traditional cashier system, and that feel of convenience has always been largely a trick of perception.
Trained cashiers can scan and bag goods faster than even the most enthusiastic shopper.
But actual checkout speed tells only part of the story.
Self-checkout has a psychological effect: As long as the shopper is taking an active part, it seems to go faster.

But sometimes the user is a less digitally savvy senior forced to use a kiosk because there aren’t enough cashier counters open.
There is also the issue of theft, as the act of bagging your own stuff creates opportunities to make it out the door without paying for everything, including pilfered plastic bags.
Losses from unscanned and mis-scanned items at poorly designed kiosks are a trade-off that retailers are well aware of.
The self-checkout system is not about efficiency or convenience for companies. It is about saving costs by making customers do the scanning and bagging instead of hiring cashiers.

Roland Paul Ang

 

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Forum: Amount of carbon dioxide to be removed by $27m facility just a drop in the ocean​

MAR 05, 2024

I question the ecological and fiscal wisdom of investing $27 million to remove some 3,650 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the ocean yearly (PUB to build world’s largest facility to help remove CO2 from ocean, Feb 27).
The article states that by removing the CO2 from the sea, the seawater can absorb more CO2 from the atmosphere when it is pumped back into the ocean. Does this absorption of additional CO2 – a minuscule fraction of all the carbon dioxide the world economy pumps into the earth’s atmosphere – make the world a better place?
We are spending $27 million on a project that provides no ecological benefit to the world – and no material benefit to Singaporeans. This money could have been better spent on the physical infrastructure or economic security of Singapore’s people.

Eric J. Brooks

Article below:

PUB to build world’s largest facility to help remove CO2 from ocean​

Once fully operational in 2025, the facility can remove 3,650 tonnes of CO2 from the ocean yearly. PHOTO: EQUATIC

Cheryl Tan
Correspondent

FEB 28, 2024

SINGAPORE – As part of its efforts to tackle climate change, Singapore will be constructing the world’s largest facility to boost the ocean’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere.
The US$20 million (S$27 million) plant, once fully operational in 2025, will be able to remove some 3,650 tonnes of CO2 from the ocean yearly, while helping PUB to decarbonise its water treatment processes, the national water agency said on Feb 27.
When the seawater is pumped back into the ocean, it has the capacity to absorb more CO2 from the atmosphere.
The plan comes after two smaller pilot facilities – one in PUB’s R&D desalination plant in Tuas, and the other in the Port of Los Angeles – proved successful in removing CO2.
Both plants, which were set up in April 2023, are each able to remove some 100kg of the greenhouse gas from the ocean each day.
The technology, designed by American start-up Equatic, works by pumping seawater from adjacent desalination plants through electricity. This leads to a series of chemical reactions that split the seawater into hydrogen and oxygen. The dissolved CO2 is combined with minerals in seawater like calcium and magnesium to produce solid limestone – essentially trapping the CO2 for at least 10,000 years.
The process mimics the natural formation of seashells, and the solid calcium and magnesium-based materials can either be stored on the ocean floor, or potentially be used for construction materials if found viable.

The new plant known as Equatic-1, which will replace the one in Tuas, will demonstrate if the CO2 removal technology can work on a larger scale to meet PUB’s targets.
The planned facility will also produce some 300kg of hydrogen daily, which can power the plant or be used in other industrial applications.
Equatic-1 is expected to begin operations in the last quarter of 2024, starting with one tonne a day, with help from a multidisciplinary team comprising researchers and technology-scaling experts from the start-up and the Institute for Carbon Management at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). This will be scaled up to 10 tonnes per day in the second quarter of 2025.

As PUB’s water treatment processes, including desalination, are energy-intensive, it is looking to invest in research and development to reduce energy use and help capture and remove CO2 from its operations. The agency has a target to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2045.
The new plant will be equipped to remove some 10 tonnes of CO2 a day – a hundred times more than each of the two existing pilot plants.
PUB said the processed seawater will be further treated to reduce any potential impact to the marine environment. “PUB and Equatic will closely monitor any environmental impact arising from the operations of the demonstration plant (Equatic-1) via an independent consultant,” said its spokesman.
Once the new facility proves successful, Equatic will scale and commercialise its technology globally, said Professor Gaurav Sant, co-founder of the start-up and director of the Institute for Carbon Management.
On a commercial scale, the plant will be able to remove some 110,000 tonnes of CO2 yearly, equivalent to the carbon emissions of 25,000 people.
MORE ON THIS TOPIC
Tuas water reclamation plant on track for 2026 opening despite rising costs
PUB to set standards for coastal protection infrastructure against rising sea levels
A number of US start-ups are making headway in technologies to remove ocean-based carbon dioxide. For instance, California-based firm Ebb Carbon is planning to use electricity to make ocean water more alkaline, which would help absorb more CO2 from the atmosphere. It is planning to build its first small-scale plant in the Californian city of Pasadena to remove CO2 for storage underground or to be used for industrial processes.
RunningTide, based in Maine in the United States, signed an agreement with Microsoft, which aims to be carbon-negative by 2030, to remove and store some 12,000 tonnes of CO2 from the ocean by growing seaweed, which absorbs CO2 as it grows.
A 2018 report by the United Nations’ top climate science body – the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – projected that around 100 to 1,000 gigatonnes of CO2 will need to be removed by the end of the century in order to limit global warming to 1.5 deg C.
Some methods of CO2 removal include planting new trees and using direct air capture technologies that suck CO2 from the atmosphere for permanent storage deep underground. Ocean-based means can also be used, and these involve harnessing various physical and chemical properties of the ocean to enhance its ability to store carbon.
Oceans are a natural store of CO2, absorbing around 30 per cent of CO2 emissions from human activity.
However, the increased uptake of CO2 has caused warming oceans, ocean acidification and oxygen loss, destroying many marine ecosystems and habitats. This affects the ocean’s ability to continue providing food, supporting livelihoods and insulating the world from the worsening impacts of climate change.
The costs of technologies that remove CO2 from oceans still remain high, and it is unclear what their impact might be on the ocean ecosystems, or if they could still be viable at a larger scale.
The project is funded by PUB, the National Research Foundation and the Institute for Carbon Management.
Once Equatic-1 is operational, carbon credits will be generated through the process, each representing a tonne of CO2 that is removed from the atmosphere.
PUB said that the credits will be allocated to each of the three project partners according to the proportion of funding that they had put in.


Equatic has already entered into agreements with companies like Boeing for the purchase of carbon credits from future commercial plants.
PUB added that it will continue to study the potential of integrating the technology as part of the desalination process in its plants, to determine which stage of the process would provide the most benefits in terms of net carbon abatement.
For example, capturing carbon dioxide from seawater at the beginning of the desalination process could help lower the overall energy requirements of desalination.
PUB’s chief engineering and technology officer Pang Chee Meng said: “We are pleased to further our collaboration with UCLA and Equatic to develop a solution that has potential synergies with PUB’s desalination plants.
“We firmly believe that technological advancements, delivered in partnership with academia and the private sector, hold the key to addressing the complex challenges posed by climate change.”

 

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Cultivated meat producer Eat Just pauses operations in Singapore​

Eat Just’s facility in Bedok Food City was shuttered when The Straits Times visited it on Feb 29. ST PHOTO: SHABANA BEGUM
Chin Hui Shan and Shabana Begum

MAR 04, 2024

SINGAPORE – The world’s first cultivated meat product was approved for sale in Singapore in 2020 to much fanfare. But production of the cell-based meat by Californian firm Eat Just has been put on pause, The Straits Times understands.
Eat Just’s cultivated chicken products – sold under the label Good Meat – are not available at Huber’s Bistro, which was previously the only restaurant offering the novel food. The Good Meat production facility in Bedok, initially slated to open in the third quarter of 2023, is shuttered, ST checks showed.
When queried, an Eat Just spokeswoman said: “We’re evaluating various processing conditions, the unit economics, and a larger strategic approach to producing in Asia.”
Huber’s Bistro stopped offering the kebab skewers and chicken salads made with Good Meat in December 2023.
Its marketing manager said Huber’s will have the product on the menu again when supply is ready, and expects to resume its offering of the cultivated chicken “very soon”.
It had previously been selling the dishes since January 2023.
Meanwhile, Eat Just’s $61 million cultivated meat manufacturing facility in Bedok appears not to be in operation. The company held a ground-breaking event for the facility in 2022.

When ST visited Bedok Food City – the industrial premises that house the 30,000 sq ft Good Meat facility – on Feb 29, workers from other firms in the building said the US company’s two units on the ground floor are shut and were rarely opened for about six months. Boxes of air-purifying equipment sat outside one of the closed units, and benches were piled outside the other.
ST understands that a separate commercial manufacturing facility which previously produced Eat Just’s cultivated chicken products is also no longer producing for them.
Cultivated meat refers to meat products that are made from growing animal cells in a bioreactor – similar to the vats used in brewing beer – instead of slaughtering actual chickens.


This is considered to be a more sustainable meat production method as large volumes can be produced involving less land and labour.

Huber’s Butchery stopped offering cell-cultured chicken kebab skewers in December 2023. PHOTO: GOOD MEAT
Asked about the delay in the opening of the Bedok facility, Eat Just’s spokeswoman said there is “no firm timeline” on when it will be operational.
She added that the firm has “produced and paused and produced and paused” since it started selling the items. “We’re planning to produce at least twice as much in Singapore this year than any year before.”
Apart from cultivated meat, Eat Just’s plant-based egg business here also appears to be at a standstill.
In March 2022, Eat Just announced that it would be building a plant-protein factory in Pioneer to make items such as liquid eggs, made of mung bean protein and turmeric. At a ground-breaking ceremony then in Pioneer View, the company said the factory would be built within two years.
However, when asked about updates on the factory, the firm’s spokeswoman said on March 1: “We are not building a facility in Pioneer.”

Eat Just announced in March 2022 that it would build a plant-protein factory in Pioneer to produce items such as liquid eggs. PHOTO: ST FILE
The current pause in production in Singapore comes amid overseas reports of legal and financial woes confronting the US firm.
Eat Just is in a legal dispute with a former partner over alleged unpaid invoices, news outlet Wired reported in early February.
In September 2023, Bloomberg reported that Eat Just is facing a US$100 million (S$134 million) lawsuit from its bioreactor manufacturer and that the firm had dismissed about 40 employees in a cost-cutting move.
Eat Just made international headlines in 2020 when its chicken bites became the world’s first cultivated meat product to receive regulatory approval for sale in Singapore.
Following the approval, Eat Just first sold its cultivated chicken nuggets at a members’ club in Robertson Quay known as 1880 in early 2021. It was then sold on delivery platform foodpanda and at a few hawker stalls on a limited basis.
While a potential alternative to traditionally farmed meat, cultivating meat for consumption is still in its early stages.
According to a 2021 report by management consulting firm McKinsey, the market for cultivated meat could reach US$25 billion by 2030. But the report noted that there are challenges to realising this potential, including getting consumers to trust the product, and making it affordable and on a par with the cost of conventional meat.
The high cost of the culture medium is one obstacle to the scalability of cultivated meat, said Professor William Chen, director of Nanyang Technological University’s food science and technology programme. Culture medium refers to the nutrient broth that the animal cells are immersed in so that they multiply into tissue.
Prof Chen added that it is also costly to invest in the research and development to replace bovine serum – which is conventionally used as a growth supplement – in the medium with kill-free alternatives. Foetal bovine serum comes from the blood of unborn cow foetuses, which makes it ethically controversial and expensive.

Prof Chen also added that producing cultivated meat is highly energy-consuming, and renewable energy sources such as solar energy should be tapped to ensure it is sustainable in the long run.
Despite these challenges, he believes that the industry is in its infancy and still has potential to provide another viable meat alternative.
“These are new technologies. We should give them space to grow. There are bound to be setbacks here and there, but this is not the end of the story,” said Prof Chen.
ST has contacted the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) for comment.

---

Timeline​

December 2020: SFA approves the sale of a cultured meat product – bite-size chicken from Eat Just – after it is deemed safe for consumption. It is the first regulatory authority in the world to approve sale of such meat.
January 2021: The cell-based chicken bites are first served in a members’ club in Robertson Quay known as 1880. Subsequently, the novel meat is sold on delivery platform foodpanda and at a few hawker stalls.
March 2022: Eat Just announces that it will build a plant-protein factory in Pioneer. Alternative protein products that would be manufactured include bottled yolk made from mung bean protein and turmeric that can be scrambled and tastes like real eggs.
June 2022: Eat Just breaks ground on its upcoming 30,000 sq ft facility – about half the size of a football field – in food industry hub Bedok Food City. It is expected to be operational by the third quarter of 2023.
December 2022: Eat Just announces that dishes made from its cultivated chicken, such as cultivated chicken kebab and fried cultivated chicken skin salad, will be offered at meat products producer and supplier Huber’s Butchery in Dempsey from January 2023. Eat Just said then it is hoping to get approval from SFA for cultivated beef in 2023.
January 2023: ST reports that Eat Just has received approval from SFA to produce serum-free cultivated meat, a move that would see its laboratory-made chicken produced more cheaply and sustainably.
June 2023: The United States approves the sale of cultured meat from Good Meat and Upside Foods to consumers, making it the second country, after Singapore, to allow cultivated meat sales.
December 2023: Huber’s Bistro in Dempsey pauses its offer of Good Meat chicken. In 2024, it told ST it is expecting to resume the offer “very soon”.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Daikin triples workers fixing cooling system defects after some Tengah residents face leaks​

Daikin has formed dedicated teams to focus on rectifying issues, after some Tengah residents faced leaks from their centralised cooling system. PHOTOS: HAMIZAN JAILANI AND NUR AFIFAH HAZALI

Isabelle Liew

MAR 06, 2024

SINGAPORE – Manufacturer Daikin, which is responsible for installing the centralised cooling system in Tengah flats, has tripled its team of workers rectifying condensation issues after some residents reported leaks stemming from the system.
It has also doubled its quality control team in order to conduct extra checks and reduce workmanship issues, a spokesman for Daikin told The Straits Times.
He said the firm has doubled the number of installers, and is stepping up efforts to train them, with an emphasis on “quality work methodologies and processes” to minimise workmanship issues.
On average, about 170 Daikin workers in Tengah are carrying out installation, maintenance and rectification works daily.
The firm will deploy more workers when the need arises, the spokesman added. These efforts come as some residents across the first three Build-To-Order (BTO) projects in the new Tengah town told ST that they had encountered leaks from their cooling systems.
Plantation Village resident Nur Afifah Hazali said she faced recurring leaks from the centralised cooling system in her new home for nearly three weeks in January, after she moved into the four-room flat while it was still undergoing renovation.
Despite reporting on several occasions the issue to SP Group – which manages the cooling system in Tengah – the leaks persisted, even after extra layers of insulation were added to the pipes, the 31-year-old nurse said.

She added that water would drip along the cooling system’s pipes from the main door to the master bedroom, even when the air-conditioning was turned off.
“We thought it was going to be a smooth renovation, and there would be air-con, so we felt that it was fine to move in. We expected everything to be finished before February, but the leaking issues derailed that,” said Ms Afifah.
She cancelled her contract for the centralised system on Jan 18 and forked out $4,300 to install a conventional one.


Ms Afifah, who paid about $3,500 for four fan coil units, is waiting to receive a 50 per cent refund – a goodwill gesture that SP implemented in November following an outcry from residents.
“We wasted a lot of money, but I just want peace of mind – that when we go out, we won’t come home to a leaking house,” she said.

Ms Afifah said water would drip along the cooling system’s trunking from the main door to the master bedroom. PHOTO: NUR AFIFAH HAZALI
SP and Daikin told ST that cases of condensation – which may result in leaks in some incidents – were largely caused by workmanship issues due to the Housing Board’s “compressed timeline” to hand over units to residents. As a result, they had insufficient time to install the fan coil units, piping and trunking, as well as to fully test, stabilise and commission the systems.
The spokesman for Daikin added that it also faced a “challenging timeline” to recruit skilled labour and conduct proper training.
He said Daikin has formed dedicated teams to focus on rectifying issues, and apologised for the inconvenience caused to customers.
A spokesman for SP said the company expects to reduce the number of cases still being resolved to 30 by the end of March, down from 80 in mid-February.
ST spoke to eight residents who faced leakage issues; four of them had chosen to cancel their contracts.
More than 1,000 households have cancelled their contracts for the cooling system, based on figures from SP. It said it had more than 9,000 subscribers to the system as at Feb 12 – seven out of every 10 Tengah flat owners.
In comparison, an archived webpage date-stamped Nov 15, 2023 on the myTengah website showed that there were 10,600 subscribers to the system, representing eight in 10 flat owners in the new town.
The website is run by SP.
Mr Hamizan Jailani, 32, said he decided to cancel as it was “not worth the stress” of having to travel from Yishun to Tengah nearly every day to check his Plantation Grange unit for leaks. The leaks cropped up after he opted for additional tests on the cooling system in January, and he said workers had changed the insulation material and sealed several areas with duct tape to address the issue.
“Water would still leak throughout the whole day... I felt that it was not solving the root of the problem,” said Mr Hamizan, who works in the transport industry.

Mr Hamizan said he travelled from Yishun to Tengah nearly every day to check his Plantation Grange unit for leaks. PHOTO: HAMIZAN JAILANI
Procurement executive Jerome Low, 33, had a better experience.
He said a palm-sized puddle of water had formed in his living room in December as condensation had formed around the cooling system’s trunking. The issue was resolved within a week, after workers added extra layers of insulation around the pipes.
Tengah, an eco-friendly and car-lite “forest” town, is the first HDB estate to provide a centralised cooling system as an option for home owners.
The system uses chilled water to remove heat, unlike conventional air-conditioning units that are connected to outdoor compressors and use refrigerants to cool down flats. Centralised chillers on the blocks’ rooftops produce chilled water that is piped directly into homes.
There were teething problems, with some residents saying the air-conditioning in their units was not cold enough.
ST had reported in December 2023 that some residents were upset that despite getting their keys, the cooling system had not been installed in their units, while others encountered leaks.
Ms Mitchell Ee, 30, said the vinyl flooring in parts of her home was soaked, and there was water damage to a wall after the HDB’s Building Service Centre alerted her to leaks in the unit on Feb 13. Although SP is repairing the damage to her unit, Ms Ee said the incident put a bad taste in her mouth. “I cancelled my contract as I don’t want to risk it ‘flooding’ again,” said the allied health professional.

Ms Ee said the floor in parts of her home was soaked after a leaking episode. PHOTO: MITCHELL EE
A resident who wanted to be known only as Mr Chung, 60, said that shortly after he and his family moved into their five-room flat in January, he observed water droplets forming on the piping along his corridor, and there were some watermarks on his false ceiling.
“I quickly shut off the water valve as I heard of other leaking cases, and did not want our false ceiling and carpentry to be damaged. We have slept without air-conditioning for the past three weeks,” said Mr Chung, adding that he had spent $54,000 on renovating his home.
The SP spokesman said new BTO flats have a 12-month defects liability period that covers the fan coil units, piping and trunking within their units.
The Daikin spokesman said condensation in air-conditioning is a common issue in Singapore due to high humidity. He cited a written parliamentary reply from the Ministry of National Development in January that said the HDB receives an average of 715 cases of feedback a year about condensation in conventional air-conditioning.
Asked about the leakage issues, a spokeswoman for the HDB said it was aware of feedback on the cooling system from some residents, and has been supporting SP to address them.
Its BTO contractors will also assist with some touch-up works, such as those arising from installation of the cooling system, and rectification works done by SP or Daikin workers, on a goodwill basis, she added.
“HDB will continue to monitor the feedback on the centralised cooling system together with SP Group, and support them to ensure that the roll-out of the system in Tengah proceeds as smoothly as possible,” the spokeswoman said.

 

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Restructuring and retrenchment.

CEO of Singapore’s CIX carbon credit exchange resigns​

Mr Mikkel Larsen will remain in his role until a new or interim CEO is appointed. PHOTO: CLIMATE IMPACT X

David Fogarty
Climate Change Editor

MAR 21, 2024

SINGAPORE – Mr Mikkel Larsen, chief executive officer of Singapore’s Climate Impact X (CIX), a carbon credit exchange and marketplace, has announced his resignation, CIX said in a statement on March 21.
Mr Larsen, 49, will remain in his role until a new or interim CEO is appointed.
He will continue to serve as a member of CIX’s board, the company said. A company spokeswoman confirmed the news to The Straits Times.
Mr Larsen said that he was stepping down as CEO to focus on his family. “Over the past seven years, I have lived away from my wife and children for six of them. I have made the decision to now give my family the priority they deserve,” he said.
“It has been a very difficult decision to leave a company that I had the good fortune of helping to build, and that I have so much conviction in.”
Mr Larsen has been with CIX since it was launched at the end of 2021. CIX is a joint venture funded by DBS, Standard Chartered, the Singapore Exchange and GenZero, a decarbonisation-focused investment platform founded by state investor Temasek.
CIX, which has an office in London, has grown to become a global marketplace, auction house and exchange for carbon credits. It focuses on high-quality carbon credits – those that come from projects that are fully verified and use the highest standards to benefit the climate, local communities and nature.


Each credit represents a tonne of planet-warming carbon dioxide (CO2) and they are generated from projects that either remove CO2 from the air or prevent it from being emitted in the first place, such as saving a rainforest from being chopped down.
Buyers use carbon credits to meet their climate change targets, such as the goal to cut planet-warming emissions to net zero by the middle of the century, by buying credits from carbon projects around the world and counting the emissions savings from those projects as their own.
However the global trade in carbon credits has suffered from deep concerns over their quality and integrity and a lack of transparency. While exchanges, investors, regulators and standards bodies have tried to address the concerns, global trading in carbon credits has failed to grow as fast as many had hoped.
In 2023, CIX laid off a small number of staff as part of a restructuring, but it did not say who or how many at the time.
The CIX spokeswoman said Mr Larsen’s departure was unrelated to the restructuring exercise.
“Apart from natural attrition, we expect a stabilisation in our headcount going forward as we continue to retain a strong positive outlook on the long-term viability of carbon markets,” she said.
“The restructuring exercise undertaken was aimed at optimising our operations and better positioning CIX to meet the evolving needs of the market we serve.”

 

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Some bamboo toilet paper contained very little bamboo, tests find​

The toilet paper that was tested was made of mostly fast-growing virgin hardwoods, with some acacia in Bazoo and Bumboo. PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: UNSPLASH

MAR 27, 2024

LONDON - Three brands of toilet paper advertised as being made of bamboo mostly contained hardwood, according to tests conducted by a British-based consumer protection non-profit.
The analysis, carried out in November by Which?, found that toilet paper from Bumboo and Bazoo, which promised to be “100 per cent bamboo”, contained only 2.7 per cent and 26.1 per cent of bamboo respectively. Naked Sprout, another bamboo toilet paper brand, had 4 per cent bamboo.
The toilet paper that was tested was made of mostly fast-growing virgin hardwoods, largely eucalyptus, with some acacia in Bazoo and Bumboo. Two other products, from the companies Who Gives a Crap and The Cheeky Panda, were found to contain 100 per cent bamboo.
Bamboo has been hailed as a miracle material for decarbonisation because it is fast-growing, durable and suitable for use in many materials and products, from clothing to furniture. But the new tests shed light on the difficulty of ensuring that products advertised as eco-friendly are accurately labelled, and supply chains are tracked and monitored.
“Businesses must take responsibility for ensuring their products contain what they say on the packaging so that shoppers who want to make sustainable choices can trust the information they are given,” said Ms Emily Seymour, sustainability editor at Which?.
All three companies said their supply chains were certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), a non-profit that awards labels to products that have passed certain standards of sourcing. A spokesperson for the council said it was “concerned” by the findings and was investigating.
The tests were carried out at an independent lab using internationally recognised methods created by the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry, according to Which?.

Bumboo co-founder Rob Ingram said the issues related to a specific batch of toilet paper and were linked to a storage unit that was part of its supply chain in China. “As this is a shared facility, it would have impacted other companies,” he added. The company now tests every batch and publishes the results on its website, he said.
Bazoo’s founders Tom Trow and Sanmarie Grobler said they were in “extensive communications” with FSC to “understand clearly where this error occurred”, given their toilet paper is “vigorously audited” by the non-profit. “We were incredibly disappointed to know that any of our rolls had been contaminated at source,” they said in an e-mail.
A spokesperson for Naked Sprout said it was “incredibly disappointed” by the findings and said the tests had “limitations”. The company said the FSC told it “there have been no issues identified with any of our pulp suppliers”. BLOOMBERG

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

SP Group offers extra 6 months’ warranty for Tengah’s cooling system after leak complaints​

Some residents of the first three BTO projects in the new town faced condensation and leaks from their cooling systems. PHOTOS: NG SOR LUAN, MITCHELL EE

Isabelle Liew

MAR 28, 2024

SINGAPORE – Utilities company SP Group, which manages the centralised cooling system in Tengah town, will offer an extra six months’ warranty covering the system’s piping and trunking within flats.
Residents who have collected or will be collecting the keys to their units on or before Dec 31 will receive the additional warranty, SP said on March 28. This is on top of the 12-month defects liability period that covers the fan coil units, piping and trunking.
This move comes after some residents of the first three Build-To-Order (BTO) projects in the new town faced condensation and leaks from their cooling systems, The Straits Times reported earlier in March.
SP also said that the chilled water usage rate for the system will be lowered to 12.2 cents per kilowatt-hours refrigeration (kWrh) before goods and services tax from April 1 to June 30, down from 13.2 cents per kWrh in the previous quarter.
The usage rate for the cooling system is reviewed and adjusted quarterly.
SP said the additional warranty and the reduced usage rate will “bring added value and cost efficiencies” to subscribers of the centralised cooling system.
Plantation Grange resident Muhammad Aqeel Kaskhy, 33, said the extra warranty gives him greater peace of mind as he faced condensation issues in February, with water droplets forming around the cooling system’s trunking.

The issue was resolved after workers added extra layers of insulation around the pipes.
“The additional warranty will allow more time for people to actually use the system and put it through its paces,” said the marine service coordinator.
Civil servant Alvin Lim, 32, who is expecting to collect the keys to his four-room flat in Tengah in the first quarter of 2025, said he hopes the extra warranty can be extended to more residents.

“What about those who collect their keys after Dec 31, 2024? It would be better if the warranty can cover not just the system’s piping and trunking, but also the floor, walls and furniture that are damaged due to the system,” he said.
Tengah, an eco-friendly and car-lite “forest” town, is the first HDB estate to provide a centralised cooling system as an option for home owners.
The system uses chilled water to remove heat, unlike conventional air-conditioning units that are connected to outdoor compressors and use refrigerants to cool down flats.
Centralised chillers on the blocks’ rooftops produce chilled water that is piped directly into homes.
Residents are billed for the chilled water and electricity usage of the cooling system each month.
In November 2023, SP said it would waive usage charges for the system until Dec 31 that year as a gesture of goodwill, and lower the rate from Jan 1 in response to an outcry from residents.
More than 150 Tengah residents sent a signed petition to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in October 2023 in which they highlighted that the chilled water usage rate of 20.38 cents per kWrh for the period of October to December 2023 was higher than expected, and requested that it be lowered.
SP said then that the rate from Jan 1 would be adjusted to 13.2 cents per kWrh before GST because some residents had moved into their Tengah flats, and it was able to review its rate with usage data.
But the cooling system had further teething issues. Earlier in March, ST reported that some residents cancelled their contracts for the cooling system after encountering leaks.

Daikin, which is responsible for installing the centralised cooling system in Tengah flats, said it tripled its team of workers rectifying condensation issues. PHOTO: HAMIZAN JAILANI
Manufacturer Daikin, which is responsible for installing the centralised cooling system in Tengah flats, said it tripled its team of workers rectifying condensation issues. It also doubled its quality control team in order to conduct extra checks and reduce workmanship issues, among other efforts.
SP and Daikin told ST that cases of condensation – which may result in leaks in some incidents – were largely caused by workmanship issues due to the Housing Board’s “compressed timeline” to hand over units to residents.
On March 28, SP said it continues to work closely with Daikin to ramp up resources in handling teething issues and workmanship challenges.
“We have resolved a majority of the condensation issues, and our priority is to address and resolve all outstanding issues expeditiously,” it added.
In response to queries, SP said the number of cases still being resolved as at March 28 has been reduced to fewer than 30, down from 80 in mid-February.
It expects to overcome its teething issues in 2024.
SP said it had more than 9,000 subscribers to the cooling system as at Feb 12 – seven out of every 10 Tengah flat owners.
In comparison, an archived webpage date-stamped Nov 15, 2023, on SP’s myTengah website showed that there were 10,600 subscribers to the system, representing eight in 10 flat owners in the new town.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

The PAP government now has to spin a story to justify the use of central cooling in Tengah.

Homes need central cooling systems in a hotter Singapore​

Conventional air-conditioners are not only energy-intensive, but also rely on harmful refrigerants, which contribute to ozone depletion and global warming.​

Kavickumar Muruganathan

Known for our hot weather and humidity, it is hardly surprising that Singapore is among the top countries in the world in terms of air conditioning use. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI

APR 11, 2024

Air-conditioning was, in the words of Mr Lee Kuan Yew, the visionary founding father and first prime minister of modern Singapore, perhaps one of the “signal inventions of history”.
“It changed the nature of civilisation by making development possible in the tropics,” he said.
“Without air-conditioning, you can work only in the cool early-morning hours or at dusk. The first thing I did upon becoming prime minister was to install air-conditioners in buildings where the civil service worked. This was key to public efficiency,” he added during an interview in 2009 published in the New Perspectives Quarterly.
Situated just about 137km north of the Equator, Singapore has always had to grapple with hot weather and humidity. Hardly surprising, therefore, that it is among the top countries in the world in terms of air-conditioning use.
Air-conditioning has become an integral part of the daily lives of Singaporeans, be it at home, in the office or at the shopping mall. About 80 per cent of all Singapore households have air-conditioners. And 99 per cent of private residences here are equipped with air-conditioners.

The cost of air-conditioning​

But this love affair with air-conditioning comes at a cost – both economic and environmental. Household electricity consumption has surged by over 17 per cent in the past decade, mostly due to the increased use of air-conditioning.
Air-conditioning alone accounts for a quarter of an average household’s electricity consumption. Collectively, both residential and commercial buildings contribute significantly to Singapore’s carbon emissions, with air-conditioning playing a significant role.

Ironically, while air-conditioning helps us stave off the heat outdoors, it contributes to global warming at the same time. Air-conditioning alone could account for up to 40 per cent of the world’s remaining carbon budget by 2050, according to the World Economic Forum. Singaporeans must hence balance their personal comfort with environmental responsibility.
Conventional air-conditioners are not only energy intensive, but also rely on harmful refrigerants, which contribute to ozone depletion and global warming. Thus, there is an urgent need to shift to environmentally sustainable alternatives.

The Tengah model​

Cooling with chilled water via centralised systems is one such option that leads to lower energy consumption and cost savings.

The centralised cooling system built in Tengah new town, a first of its kind in Singapore, is said to be 30 per cent more energy-efficient when compared with the use of split-unit air-conditioners in households. Any reduction in energy consumption will go some way in contributing towards Singapore meeting its carbon emissions reduction targets of peak emissions in 2030 and net zero by 2050.
Both the centralised chilled water cooling system and the conventional split-unit air-conditioning system use indoor cooling units to absorb warm air from inside the home before cooling it. The fundamental difference is that one uses chilled water for cooling and the other relies on refrigerants.
Split-unit air-conditioners have individual indoor units that connect to outdoor compressors that contain refrigerants. On the other hand, centralised cooling systems rely on efficient commercial-grade chillers installed on the rooftops of apartment blocks that produce chilled water piped directly to the indoor cooling units within each HDB flat. Heated air absorbed by the system is channelled back to the chiller and released into the atmosphere.
With the centralised cooling system in Tengah, home owners will know the exact amount of chilled water used to cool the flat, allowing them to control usage. Centralised cooling systems also do away with the need for condensers, reducing the hassle of maintenance and its associated cost.
But, like any new system being implemented, there are bound to be implementation issues. Recently, some residents in Tengah complained about water leakages from piping systems.
From an engineering perspective in land-scarce Singapore, it is certainly challenging to install chillers that take up space, and design a chilled water piping network system to ensure energy efficiency and commercial viability. In Tengah, chillers were placed on rooftops to preserve communal spaces. Unsightly trunking due to the piping system was also a concern raised by residents, but these can be improved upon in subsequent designs for other new estates.
These teething issues should by no means be considered a setback for Singapore’s plans for centralised cooling systems using chilled water for public housing. In fact, Tengah should be regarded as a stepping stone that paves the way forward to scale implementation to support the Republic’s long-term climate goals.
There is a clear business case for home owners, too, with higher energy efficiency for cooling translating to lower utility bills. Given Singapore’s tropical climate and the lack of land and natural resources, we need to acknowledge there are limitations on how we can keep ourselves cool and reduce our energy use at the same time, and find the best ways to achieve that.

Proven technology​

The use of chilled water as a medium for cooling is a proven viable alternative. There are numerous instances of its use elsewhere in the world in residential as well as industrial settings. In Europe, centralised cooling systems are being used to cool homes. The 2022 football World Cup matches in Qatar took place in air-conditioned stadiums, with the Khalifa International Stadium cooled using chilled water.
Even in Singapore, chilled water has been used in commercial buildings in the Central Business District (CBD). The Marina Bay CBD cooling system is set to be expanded to cool 28 commercial buildings by 2026. This is expected to lead to a reduction of 20,000 tonnes of carbon emissions annually.
Singapore’s largest industrial district cooling system using chilled water will also be operational in Ang Mo Kio in 2025 – ST Microelectronics’ TechnoPark. When ready, it is expected to reduce carbon emissions by up to 120,000 tonnes annually, and cut the TechnoPark’s electricity consumption by 20 per cent.
The net environmental benefits for the use of chilled water in cooling systems are clear. The project in Tengah should serve as a blueprint for broader implementation across public housing developments.

Fit new HDB flats with central cooling systems​

While the retrofitting of existing HDB flats will certainly be costly, installing centralised cooling systems in new public housing developments is a win-win for residents, Singapore’s climate ambition and, most importantly, the environment.
From a demand perspective, residents may be incentivised to opt for centralised cooling systems given their electricity and water bill savings, and generous warranty periods for the cooling system piping and trunking. Broadly, there should also be greater awareness creation and education among residents on the merits of centralised cooling systems.
From a supply perspective, government tenders should incorporate requirements for the installation of centralised cooling systems. These initiatives can help to scale up the development and adoption of such systems.
Staying cool is going to be even more crucial as temperatures in the tropics, including Singapore, soar because of global warming. Heat-related issues are likely to affect those who are vulnerable the most, including the elderly and sick.
Mr Lee’s acknowledgement of its centrality to Singapore’s growth story is a reminder that technological advancements can shape our lives in profound ways. A centralised cooling system will provide respite from the heat, and ought to be a key part of public housing.

• Kavickumar Muruganathan is adjunct faculty member at the National University of Singapore School of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a pioneer sustainability professional in Singapore

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Mergers, closures, diversification: What is happening to S’pore’s cultivated meat sector?​

Cultivated meat is thought to be kinder and more sustainable as it is slaughter-free and uses less water and land to produce. PHOTO: ST FILE
Cheryl Tan and Shabana Begum

APR 28, 2024

SINGAPORE – Singapore piqued interest when it was the first country in the world to approve the sale of cultivated chicken in 2020, attracting both local and global players to set up their operations here.
But a few years on, momentum has slowed amid challenges in reaching commercialisation, cost pressures, a lack of clear consumer demand and flagging investment appetite.
This has led to companies scaling down, consolidating and pivoting.
California-founded Eat Just, which was the world’s first to receive approval from Singapore to sell its cultivated chicken, has “paused production” here.
Fewer companies in the cultivated meat ecosystem have been incorporated here each year – falling from seven in 2021 to four in 2022, and none in 2023, according to figures from SGInnovate, Singapore’s investment arm.
But this was not unexpected, said Ms Annabelle Chiong, SGInnovate’s deputy director of investments.

“Many ground-breaking technologies go through an initial period where a lot of start-ups are created, especially if the perceived market appears large... (leading to many wanting) to capture a piece of what was believed to be a huge potential market,” she said.

Start-ups’ success depends on how receptive mainstream consumers are to cultivated meat, but such options are perceived to be too expensive, she noted.

The funding bubble​

Cultivated meat is thought to be kinder and more sustainable as it is slaughter-free, requires less water and land to produce, and results in less pollution overall.
The sector had gained momentum up till 2022, but investor appetite for the fledgling sector began to wane in 2023 amid concerns over its tech scalability and the long timeline from research and development (R&D) to commercialisation, resulting in a slow return on investments.

A report by alternative protein think-tank The Good Food Institute found that by 2023, some US$3.1 billion (S$4.2 billion) had been invested in cultivated meat and seafood companies globally since 2013.
Amid current macroeconomic headwinds and a funding dry spell, industry players expect to see more consolidation in the market through mergers and acquisitions.
This impacts both home-grown firms and alternative protein companies here that hail from places like the United States, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Australia and Israel.

Mergers would allow start-ups to pool their resources and technical knowledge, which will concentrate their R&D investments. This can bring about quicker technological breakthroughs and commercialisation.
Venture capitalist Tan Yinglan said the spotlight effect of US-founded cultivated meat companies expanding into Asia helped draw attention to local companies – and that may have created the perception that consumer demand is larger than it actually is.
But the taste and nutritional value of these foods compared with other available protein sources make it difficult to sustain consumer interest, added the founding managing partner of Insignia Ventures Partners, which has invested in many tech firms in the early to growth stages.
“Furthermore, approval for the sale of cultivated meat in the US in June 2023 signals that one of the world’s largest food markets is now open to start-ups in the space – giving companies the option of a much larger consumer market than Singapore’s,” noted SGInnovate’s Ms Chiong.
She said mergers would make strategic sense. “The fall in funding and revaluation of companies have forced them to seek alternative ways to achieve scale and operational efficiencies.”

Tech challenges​

Ms Carrie Chan, chief executive of Hong Kong-founded Avant Meats, which has a pilot plant in Singapore producing small amounts of cultivated fish, said: “Due to the economic conditions, investors have become more conservative.
“Some are thinking (this sector) is more challenging, and they should not be investing in anything at the pre-revenue stage as the tech involved can be difficult to scale up quickly.”
It is innately challenging for cultivated meat companies to scale up their tech quickly and bring products to market.
For one thing, the sheer cost of manufacturing bioreactors at a scale needed for commercial production outstrips any potential savings from economies of scale, said Dr Simon Eassom, chief executive of Food Frontier, a think-tank on alternative proteins in Australia and New Zealand.
This challenge may be multiplied when it comes to dealing with cultivated fish or seafood.
Firms cultivating meat like chicken and pork can rely on mammalian stem cells, which are already readily available as they are used in the biomedical sector, said ImpacFat chief executive and co-founder Mandy Hon, whose company cultivates fish fat to improve the taste and texture of lab-grown fish.
To do so, it had to isolate stem cells from fish meat and grow these into fat cells. This was uncharted territory as there was no scientific research to guide the Singapore company along the way, she added.
Local firm Shiok Meats has faced issues scaling up its crustacean stem cells for production and has delayed its market entry repeatedly since 2020.
The company in 2021 acquired Gaia Foods, which focuses on cultivated red meat, in a bid to expand its portfolio. In March 2024, it merged with Singapore-based Umami Bioworks, whose speciality is in producing various species of cultivated fish.
Shiok Meats’ focus on crustaceans will now take a back seat as Umami aims to commercialise its cultivated fish products first.
Umami founder and chief executive Mihir Pershad told The Straits Times the firm has made “critical unlocks” to production at an industrial scale by establishing immortal cell lines for at least six species of fish so far.
Immortal cell lines are animal cells that continue to proliferate indefinitely while outside the animal’s body. Umami has been able to get the fish cells to grow in larger reactors for at least two species.
But creating immortal cell lines for crustaceans has been challenging as their biology is quite different from fish, Mr Pershad explained.

Diversify or die​

Companies like Eat Just has raised some US$850 million so far, while Temasek-backed Upside Foods raised US$608 million. In comparison, Umami Bioworks has so far raised only US$2.4 million, while Shiok Meats has raised at least US$30 million in funding.
Gone are the days of raising hundreds of millions in funding – and many cultivated meat producers now have to do more with less money, said Mr Pershad.
“Increasingly, investors ask us, okay, you need $100 million to build your factory, but what happens if you can’t get that kind of funding, what are you going to do?” he added.
Umami’s solution to this is a business-to-business model, in which it sells its tech know-how to food manufacturers instead of launching consumer-ready products in the market. This allows the company to tap into various markets without having to set up numerous production factories around the globe, which can be very capital-intensive.
The company recently signed a deal with Malaysia’s Cell Agritech, which is building a manufacturing plant to produce cultivated grouper and Japanese eel at scale for export by 2025.
Amid these difficulties, cultivated meat companies here have also been looking to diversify their product offerings in hopes of creating new revenue streams to stay afloat.
Mr Pershad said that while Umami works on getting its cultivated eel approved here by 2025, the company is also hoping to tap into the premium pet food market by creating a “whitefish-based product” made using cultivated fish.
As for Avant Meats, its cell-based marine peptides for skincare products is closer to commercialisation, said Ms Chan.
Similarly, ImpacFat has set its sights on skincare products and supplements like sustainable fish oil. Ms Hon expects that such products can potentially enter the market faster as they do not face the same regulatory hurdles as with cultivated meat.
When Ants Innovate was founded here in 2020 during the cultivated meat “hype years”, it aimed to produce cultivated whole meat cuts, but pivoted several months later to hybrid meat – a blend of plant-based proteins mixed with a concoction of cultivated meat cells.
Having a hybrid product is easier to scale up and less costly to produce as only a fraction of animal cells is needed, said the company’s founder, Professor Hanry Yu. This has translated to huge savings in infrastructure and operating expenses, he added.
The firm is now working on getting approval from the Singapore Food Agency, and is raising capital to engage an external contract manufacturer to produce more of its cultivated meat extract for commercialisation. Called Cell Essence, the flavouring is claimed to create a meaty taste and roasted aroma.
Umami’s Mr Pershad noted: “In 2022, there were around 150 cultivated meat companies worldwide before the market turned. I think it is unrealistic for all of them to scale up and commercialise. Some will consolidate and close down, and only a handful will survive. We hope to be good enough and prove that we deserve to continue existing in this market.”

 

[congo9]

It a fucking expensive stuff and only the anti-carbon cult believe that eating such meat will cure the world of all harms.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

ESG fund liquidations rip through America’s ETF market​

At least 27 ESG ETFs have been liquidated this year. PHOTO: PIXABAY

May 16, 2024

WASHINGTON – The United States market for environment, social and governance (ESG)-focused exchange-traded funds (ETFs) is floundering.
At least 27 ETFs categorised as being aligned with ESG principles have been liquidated so far in 2024, said Ms Shaheen Contractor, senior ESG analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence (BI). That compares with 36 during all of 2023.
And the outlook is not promising. The trend will likely continue, particularly if the Republican-led backlash against the investment strategy heats up, according to Ms Contractor.
“Complex themes that struggle to gather assets are most at risk,” she said.
Against a backdrop of increased fund closures, just two ESG ETFs have been introduced in 2024 in the Americas, the fewest since BI started tracking this data about five years ago. The number of fund launches is down from a peak of 124 during all of 2021, Ms Contractor said.
The sector is struggling because cash flows to ESG-focused portfolios have declined significantly and the market has matured, with most large-asset managers already offering a crop of such funds, she said.
Actively managed ESG ETFs, which tend to charge higher fees, account for more than half of 2024’s fund closings, Ms Contractor said. Still, the analyst said actively run funds offer the benefit of “more flexible strategies, which could gain in importance as asset managers try to stand out in an increasingly competitive market”.

Fund launches peaked in 2021, according to BI research. BLOOMBERG

 

[vamjok]

I never understand this whole ESG nonsense as an investor. To me as long anything that can makes money = good investment. I don't care if it is a weapon industry or a company that sell cocaine. Don't tell me the nonsense sustainability bullshit, I want to see the total return! money talks.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Plant-based meat substitutes might be bad for diabetics: S’pore study​

The study found that plant-based meat analogue diets did not have any health advantage over a meat-based diet. PHOTO: AFP

Salma Khalik
Senior Health Correspondent

May 23, 2024

SINGAPORE – Eating vegetables, fruit and nuts is better for your health than eating meat, but not if they have been made into plant-based meat analogues, or substitute meat.
An eight-week study by researchers here, involving 82 volunteers, found that plant-based meat analogue diets did not have any health advantage over a meat-based diet.
In fact, the study, published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in April, said that, based on the results of three days of continuous glucose monitoring, those on the animal-based diet had better glycaemic control – an important consideration for diabetics.
The researchers said the findings suggest that, despite the well-documented health benefits of traditional plant-based diets, their health benefits should not be conflated with plant-based meat analogue diets.
The team from the Singapore Institute of Food and Biotechnology Innovation, a research institute under the Agency for Science, Technology and Research, decided to do the study given the growing popularity of plant-based meat analogues.
It wanted to see the impact of these meat substitutes on cardiometabolic health – including the heart, blood vessels and blood sugar, cholesterol and pressure levels – relative to animal-based meat diets that most people are on.
The team said that while “the cardiometabolic advantages of vegetarian and vegan diets compared with omnivorous diets are well established”, the production of the analogues involves deconstruction and reconstruction of traditional plant-based foods that introduce “potential unintended consequences on various health-promoting constituents inherently present in these plant-based ingredients”.

Over the eight weeks, participants substituted their normal protein intake with fixed quantities provided by the research team led by Dr Darel Toh.
The 42 people on the animal-based meat diet (ABMD) received a selection of six frozen foods that were broadly categorised as beef mince, pork mince, chicken breast, burger patty, sausage and chicken nugget.
The 40 people on the plant-based meat diet (PBMD) were given Impossible Beef (Impossible Foods), OmniMeat Mince (OmniFoods), Chickened Out Chunks and Little Peckers (The Vegetarian Butcher) and Beyond Burger and Beyond Sausage Original Brat (Beyond Meat).

All participants had an in-person study visit at the start and again at the end of the study period, as well as online consultation sessions at weeks two and five. In addition, 37 participants did 14-day continuous glucose monitoring, and 40 had 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring.
The results showed that “contrary to our research hypothesis, we failed to substantiate any clear benefits for PBMD on cardiometabolic health compared with the corresponding ABMD”, the team said.
However, one finding might be significant for the 9.5 per cent of the population here with diabetes. The study found that the group on ABMD had better glycaemic control.
The team suggested: “For the future adoption of plant-based meat analogues, cautionary advice may be warranted for populations with heightened cardiometabolic health risks, where glycaemic management is essential. Particularly for these more vulnerable populations, there may be a greater need for a careful reformulation of existing plant-based meat analogues with either low- or better-quality carbohydrates.”
Dr Christiani Jeyakumar Henry, one of the study’s six researchers, said: “We are very proud that a team from Singapore did the first study of its kind in Asia where we fed head to head meat-based versus plant-based meat analogues in humans.”

Dr Desmond Teo, an internal medicine specialist at Alexandra Hospital, was cautious about the plant-based meat analogues’ impact on diabetics.
He pointed out that the group on PBMD had higher waist circumference and body mass index (23.2, versus 21.9 in the group on ABMD), which are associated with insulin resistance. These factors could have affected their glucose regulation. The Health Promotion Board defines a good BMI as 18.5 to 22.9.
The PBMD diet also had “higher total fat, carbohydrates, dietary fibre, sodium and potassium”, which could also account for their higher mean glucose readings. Dr Teo concluded: “There are a lot of variables that may have explained the glycaemic control rather than PBMD itself.”
However, Dr Ben Ng, an endocrinologist in private practice, called it “a very detailed study which highlights several important factors”. Endocrinologists are experts in hormone-related problems, including diabetes. Dr Ng, who has a clinic at Mount Elizabeth Novena Specialist Centre, said: “Blood sugar control is extremely important to prevent complications related to diabetes.
“This study potentially shows that PBMA (plant-based meat analogue) diet may be associated with higher blood sugars. Therefore, caution has to be advised for individuals with diabetes who are trying to reduce their meat consumption. I think it is important to consume less red meat, but using an alternative such as PBMA may be counterproductive.”
He added that the lack of changes in cardiometabolic factors also lends credence to the fact that adopting a purely plant-based meat alternative diet completely over conventional ABMD may be taking a step too far if performed purely for health reasons.
Dr Ng said people with diabetes should strive for a balanced and healthy diet, and increasing consumption of fruit and vegetables and legumes is important. But “there is insufficient evidence to recommend the consumption of plant-based meat analogues over conventional animal-based meat diets for health reasons in individuals with diabetes”.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Forum: Excerpts from readers’ letters​

May 31, 2024

Not worth buying EV after all​

I was shocked when I received my first road tax bill for my electric vehicle (EV). I had not known earlier about the Additional Flat Component being levied for now to cover the fuel excise duties paid by equivalent ICE, or internal combustion engine, vehicles.
What is the purpose of encouraging the purchase of EVs and then penalising the owner for reducing the carbon footprint and pollution while using the car?
If I had known that I would end up paying the same road tax as an ICE car, then I might as well have purchased a normal ICE or hybrid vehicle that not only would have been cheaper, but would also have removed all the range anxiety.

Perinpanayagam James

 

[True Believer]

Not worth buying EV after all
I was shocked when I received my first road tax bill for my electric vehicle (EV). I had not known earlier about the Additional Flat Component being levied for now to cover the fuel excise duties paid by equivalent ICE, or internal combustion engine, vehicles.What is the purpose of encouraging the purchase of EVs and then penalising the owner for reducing the carbon footprint and pollution while using the car?If I had known that I would end up paying the same road tax as an ICE car, then I might as well have purchased a normal ICE or hybrid vehicle that not only would have been cheaper, but would also have removed all the range anxiety.
Perinpanayagam James

Road tax is a primary source of revenue for the maintenance of our road infrastructure. Since EVs use the same roads as other cars, they contribute to wear and tear, so the Govt needs to ensure that the costs are adequately covered. S'pore has taken steps to make EVs more affordable. The Govt has lowered the ARF for EVs and introduced a rebate for the VES. The road tax for EVs has been adjusted to align more closely with that of petrol cars of similar power output. Even though the road tax for EVs may not be as low as in some other countries, the abovementioned incentives and the overall benefits of owning an EV still makes it a viable option for many drivers here.